Blended Intensive Programme: Social Work in an International Context

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Upcoming BIP

The institutions take turns to host the BIP and the last course was delivered in Leuven in Belgium. The upcoming BIP on the topic Exploring Health Promotion in Universal Services will be in Levanger in Norway hosted by Nord University in Fall 2025. The course starts with a digital seminar on the 13th of October, the second on the 3rd November and has a physical week in Levanger, Norway from 23th to 29 November. The final seminar of the course is digital and will be held on the 4th December. The digital seminars will be organised in the evenings. If you want to read about the last time we conducted a BIP in Levanger in 2024 you can look here.

Apply for the next BIP. Deadline: September 1

In the physical week there will be group work, lectures and field trips. Each university can send up to 10 students and two staff members to each BIP. At Nord we will nominate a team of students recruited from three different degree programs: Social Work (sosialt arbeid), Children Protective Services (barnevern) and Social Education (Vernepleie).

In Spring 2026 Centria University of Applied Siences in Finland will be the hosts and the physical week will be in week 8 in February.

Bilde av studenter utenfor stor, flott bygning på campus Levanger

Blended Intensive Programmes already carried out

Through this collaboration we have already delivered four BIP’s. Here you can find more information about the topics of the BIP’s, how they were organised and videos about the experience of the students who took part.

BIP in Norway, spring 2024

Read more about the 4 completed BIP´s

Topic: Children in the context of Justice

Participating students broadened their professional and personal perspectives on the international challenges and wicked problems relating to how the justice system impacts on children and youth. The physical week offered a diverse program of presentations, group work, social gatherings, and field visits, all of which inspired meaningful reflections and sparked discussions on both the differences and shared experiences across countries.

Working in international groups Finnish, Norwegian, Belgium and Dutch social work students explored the different national justice systems and the diverse consequences on children, youth including the impacts on families of a member being in the justice system.
Topic: Sexuality and intimacy in the context of care and social work

We met in Zwolle for a week of lectures, field visits, group work, and social activities. Working in international group participating students discussed different aspects with the topic. We visited various centers in both Zwolle and Amsterdam that work with different aspects of the course theme. One example was a crisis center that supports women and children who had experienced sexual abuse or had been subjected to trafficking; another was a center for sex workers in Amsterdam. The week concluded with an oral exam. Where the student groups presented their projects where they had developed an innovative approach to address a challenging aspect of sexuality and intimacy in the context of care and social work.
Topic: International Social work: Exploring Health Promotion in Universal Services

The course aimed to give students knowledge about Health Promotion in Universal Services, and in groups considered the processes, methods and challenges related to health promotion in an international context. The physical week focused on different children and youth settings including kindergartens, youth schools, high schools and youth clubs. Working in international groups students developed an innovative health promotion interventions for different categories of children and youth.
Topic: What challenges dies the Ukraine-Russia war bring for young people?

During this BIP students in international groups worked together to find evidence from their different countries the challenges of the Ukraine-Russia war for young people. They also developed approaches to addressing these challenges and shared their research and experiences.
Topic: Children in the context of justice.

Participating students broadened their professional and personal perspectives on the international challenges and wicked problems relating to how the justice system impacts on children and youth.

Working in international groups Finnish, Norwegian, Belgium and Dutch social work students explored the different national justice systems and the diverse consequences on children, youth including the impacts on families of a member being in the justice system.

Article about students experience of attending (Norwegian language): Belgisk utveksling gir nye perspektiv: Anbefaler andre studentar å søke (nord.no)
Topic: International Perspectives on Child and Youth Health and Wellbeing

Working in international group participating students explored the different approaches to health and wellbeing internationally and gained a broader professional and personal perspective on common challenges relating to the wicked problems of child and youth health and wellbeing.

Participating students not only learned from their student peers but also from international academics and different organizations working in the Dutch context. Each team developed and presented an innovate approach to address a challenging aspect of child and youth health and wellbeing.